Forests Murmurs
by Annie Oakley
Summary: Vanyel is awakened in the night after a rather insistent Mindcall brings him out into the forest to save a young girl..... Finished.
1. Default Chapter

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Vanyel woke in the night, gasping siftly as he wiped the sleep from his eyes and tried to make sense out of the dream he had just had. If his ability to See had been a little more powerful, he would have been up and out of the room already, searching the woods.  
He leaned over his knees and pressed his palms to his eyes, trying to recreate the scenes in the dark of his mind.  
There had been a girl, that much he was certain of. There had been wolves also, their furs smelling of musk and fresh blood. Flashes of black and silver tails, golden eyes bearing down on him like demons from hell. For a moment upon waking he had to reach over his shoulder and make sure that it was not his back that had been scored by harsh claws. It was almost as if the girl had pulled him into her mind, but he didn't know how it was she had done that...  
" Only a dream." He muttered to himself, laying back down in his bed, cold and lonely as it was.  
Then, out from the woods, came the eerie call of a wolf pack. " Fine!" Vanyel growled to himself as he got out of bed and threw on clothes and his boots, then clasped his cloak around his neck and stalking out of the door. " But if she dies because that Seeing wasn't strong enough!"  
He didn't know why he was talking to himself, but he was, and he continued to until he got to the small forest that appeared behind the weapons salle. As soon as he stepped into the forest, he became as silent as the grave.  
  
Brightfang stopped, looking back to see if Little could get up. She waved her strange furless paw at him and lifted her face. It was wet, a sign that she was sad, and he started to go to her, but she shouted at him.  
" No!" She put her head down again and he heard her voice in his head, the way he could understand it. : I know you do not like leaving me this way, but wounded members slow the pack down, you said it yourself.:  
He whined and pawed the ground, not wanting to leave his strange little adopted pup behind. She was more than just a pup he had found a year ago, she was his mate and his love. Their pups would mourn the loss of milk and sweet smells, but Brightfang would mourn so much more than that.  
His hackles raised as a man stepped through the brush and stood between Little and himself.  
: Brightfang, love, please go.: Little's voice was a whisper in his mind and he growled one last time, then raised his muzzle and let out a mournful howl.  
  
Vanyel did not know that there would be a wolf waiting for him when he spotted the girl. She had raised her head and put it down again, so he knew that she was alive, but barely. Her life was slwoly ebbing from his conscience, and so he had to move fast. The wolf's howl sent a chill up his spine, it was like a lament to a lost love. But the wolf ended his song and turned and left, trotting away quickly.  
He turned his attention to the girl, paying no matter to the fact that he had been close enough to the wolf that he could have reached out a hand and touched the grey ruff of his neck. Her back was scored with countless scratches, all of them deep and bleeding. Vanyel ripped the cloak off of his neck and draped it over her, then picked her up and put her none too gently over his shoulder and started the long walk back to the Collegium, hoping that someone in the Healer's Hall would be awake and up to some heavy healing.  
  
While she was being carried to safety, Little's mind reeled. Her pups would die unless some of the bitches from the pack nursed them, and they were barely old enough that they could stomach meat, if chewed well enough. Brightfang would miss her, but since she had called to the human, maybe he could heal her and then she could return to her pack.  
She hoped that none of the bitches tried to take her place by Brightfang's side. If she ever returned to the pack, she would make them sorry. If she ever returned....  
  
" Dammit! You're losing her!" Vanyel yelled, as frustrated as the Healer.  
" Something resisting me! She isn't accepting anything!" The Healer explained, and Vanyel growled under his breath and politely shoved him over.  
She'll accept this. He poised himself for something very painful, to both him and the girl. He readied a mage bolt and shot it straight into her heart. If hse had been alive and healthy, it would have killed her, but in her near comatose state, it shocked her heart into pumping, thus forcing her lungs to breathe and keep everything going. He had to do it two more times, but in the end, he got her stabilized and steady and let the Healer take over, falling back gratefully.  
She opened her eyes long enough to blink twice at him, showing that her eyes were dark and soulful, even in her state of pain. " Thank you." She whispered, then closed her eyes and the Healer announced that she was going to be put in a healing sleep.  
Vnayel nodded and told the Healer to send a page to him when she woke up. He had many questions to ask her, and he assumed that every question that she answered was going to bring up three more. He needed to get some more sleep. 


	2. 2

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 2  
  
" Milord Vanyel?" Someone knocked on his door, and he sleepily rose to answer it.  
It was a short girl in pale green Healers robes, obviously the page that had had ordered. But he had gone and gotten the girl no less than half a day past, how could she be awake now?  
" I suppose you've guessed why I'm here." The girl said, a no nonsense attitude about her.  
" Yes, but what I can't understand is why so early." Vanyel grinned as he put his boots on and stood up, following the girl to whatever room his guest had been put into.  
She was awake and looking more healthy than she had the night before, which was saying alot. She was sitting up, and kind of leaning over a little, so he guessed that they had to stitch up a few of the cuts. Her hands were bandaged and laying in her lap. When he tapped the door frame, she looked up, an unhappy look on her face.  
" I had forgotten how much fun getting hurt isn't." She said, biting her lower lip a little.  
" Funny how that works, isn't it?" Vanyel asked cynically as he took his seat at the foot of the bed, setting his elbows on his knees and looking at her.  
To anyone else, she would have been attractive, but to Vanyel, she was merely pretty. Her hair was long and it looked like it had a bath and a trim. She didn't look old enough to have soft grey hair, but she did. Another question rose in his mind, but he waited until his analyzing was over to ask anything. Her face was sort of oval, her ears stuck out of her hair like they should have been pointed like an elfs. Her eyes were soft and an eerie dark green. Her mouth, at the moment, was pointed down in an unhappy frown and she bit randomly at her lips. Her skin was tanned and her arms and what he could see of her torso was covered with a few scars.  
" Do you remember your name?" He asked, pouring a glass of water and handing it to her, giving her something to concentrate on other than her lips.  
" Li- Eleece." She cursed herself for forgetting what her human name was, but then again, had it been so long since she last used it? It must have been.  
" How old are you?" Eleece didn't know if she made the right choice in calling to this man to help her, he seemed cold and hardened.  
" Seven and ten years, born on Winter Solstice." She repeated calmly, taking little sips of water to calm her stomach.  
Vanyel's eyes seemed to match the color of her hair as they bore into hers. " Do you know how you got those wounds on your back?"  
Eleece nodded and hoped that she could keep her story straight. " I was attacked by wolves in the woods. You saved me." She said, now leaning back as the pain drugs took over.  
" The wolf that was there, was that the one?" He asked, and Eleece felt a stab of pain through the drugs.  
Brightfang had been stupid enough to let himself be seen, he could ruin everything! She steeled her emotions and shook her head. " There was no wolf that I saw, but then again, I was face down in the dirt at the time, so he could have been there or not and I wouldn't have noticed."  
Vanyel nodded. " Why did the wolves attack you, do you know?"  
" Could have been the rabbits on my game tack, or the scent of blood on me." She spread her hands and shrugged. " I don't know about the wolves, they are wild and unpredictable animals and you ask me to figure out why they attacked me. Truly, I do not know, but what I do know is that you probably have better things to do than sit around and interrogate me."  
Eleece truly did know that it was a wolf that had attacked her, but it was a wolf as she had never seen before. Nearly as big as the hunting cats that shared the forest with them, but something in his mind did not feel right to her, not the way the pack felt. He felt bad, like he was poisoned meat. He didn't touch any of the pack, just her. And his voice in her mind, it had not sounded like a wolf voice, but human almost. He'd told her that he was going to kill her, and he was going to enjoy it greatly. Then she had somehow gotten a hold on his tail and let the rest of the pack do their work, but it had been too late for her.  
She knew that he had gotten away, and that was why she needed to stay away from the pack for a while, so he did not threaten the pack if he came looking for her.  
" You know, you are right. I also happen to think that you are not telling me the whole truth to me. There was a wolf, wasn't there?" Vanyle asked, and she meekly nodded.  
" But not the one I saw, a different one." She nodded to that too and Vanyel sat back, pleased that he was getting somewhere. " I tell you what, I am going to leave for a few hours and then when I come back, I'll have my dear Aunt Savil with me. She can help you more than I can maybe. We'll just have to see."  
Vanyel seemed to be speaking more to himself than to her as he bowed politely to the Healer on his way out. Eleece wondered what had just happened here, and lay back and let the drink that the Healer gave her put her to sleep.  
  
Little dashed through the dream forest, seeking news of her pack from the other woodland animals. They were alive and healthy, the pups had been taken over by Snowheart, a pure white female that Little was friends with. Her own litter had grown and was now old enough to eat meat, so her leftover milk would go to Little's pups. Brightfang would make it so they knew who their mother was, that Snowheart was not, as little tiny pups were likely to belive that Mother was whomever gave them milk.  
Brightfang no longer hunted the small ground grouses that shared the caves with them, something that Little used to hate. She didn't know why he was doing it now instead of when she had asked him on numerous accounts. She turned her nose to the sky and howled, hoping that in their dreams they would hear and know that she was well and alive. But when she lowered her muzzle, he was there.  
: I knew you couldn't resist me. Your dreaming calls to me like the scent of fresh meat.: His thick grey fur was wet, like he had just swam in the river, and strings of drool hung from his open mouth.  
She would not look in his eyes, not again. That was what had captured her last time. They were large and human, and bright green, like a poisonous wound not healed. They had sucked her into a storm of pain and hate and angry desire.  
: Now I have you, right where I want you,: He leapt at her and she stood fast, putting up her hands as if she could sheild him off with those alone.  
His great heavy body passed right through her, like she was nothing more than mist or a spirit! He landed, turning sharply on his heel and growling.  
: This should not happen! I should be able to touch you!: Little started to pull herself out of her sleep, or maybe someone was waking her up, but she could hear his voice as her eyes opened. : You will not get away when you enter the forest next!:  
  
Vanyel had been watching Eleece sleep for a few minutes. Savil was there also, his second opinion. Eleece was calm for the most part, but then something happened and she thrashed about as if she had been tossed into a nightmare unawares. She had put her hands put in front of her and screamed, and Vanyel had grabbed her hands to keep her from doing more damage to herself, and something happened that he never thought was possible.  
Her wrists started growing fur, soft and golden. Her wrists seemed to be growing smaller, the bones becoming stronger and lighter. Her eyes opened, and they glowed a bright gold once, then she blinked and they were normal again, the fur under his hands gone as if it had never been there.  
He called to her, for she seemed to have gone comatose again. " Eleece, can you hear me?"  
She stirred, her dark grey hair shuddering around her. " Let go of me." She whispered, looking up at him through the curtain of her hair.  
Vanyel released her wrists and rubbed his own hands against his breeches, trying to rid himself of the feeling of the bones forming under his hands, the silk of new fur. Savil took residence by Vanyel and something sparked in Eleece's eyes when she saw the woman.  
" I know you." She said, amazed at something. " You ride in the forest with your snow-horse and your sparkles."  
" Sparkles?" Savil asked, obviously not expecting this conversation to have started like it did.  
Eleece seemed to shy away a little, smiling hesitiantly and spreading her hands over her body. " I see magic. Yours sparkles, like some of the Healers. Vanyel does also."  
" What you are seeing is our shielding!" Savil looked to Vanyel. " Where did you find her?"  
" In the forest. Somehow she send me a Sending, only I was asleep so it came as a dream. I got there barely in time, almost got eaten by a wolf too." Vanyel said, reclining in his seat.  
" Brightfang would never!" Eleece retorted angrily, then clapped her hands over her mouth and sat back in her bed, her eyes wide and darting from Savil to Vanyel.  
" You knew him? You knew the wolf in the forest?" Vanyel hissed, sitting forwards angrily, though he would not take his anger out on her, even if she had been keeping secrets.  
Savil put a hand on Vanyel's shoulder and eased him bach, taking the seat by Eleece's bed and spearing her with a glare that no one had yet to escape from. " You have alot of explaining to do, and you had better do it soon."  
Eleece threw back the blankets, suddenly finding it too hot to bear in the small room. She stood unsteadily on two feet, something she couldn't remember doing of late. She clutched at a wall and stood, supporting herself by placing one hand against the wall and the other weaving up and down to help her gain her balance as she tried to get the knack of standing again. The long tunic was old and a little small, but long enough to cover her knees and opaque enough that they would not see anything interesting through the fabric.  
" As you well know, the small forest has a wolf pack." They nodded and she went on. " Ever since I ran away from home, about six years past, I've run with them. They've been my family since my human one scorned me."  
" Brightfang was the first to find me, I had been wounded by a bear and lay in the stream where they usally drank, that was when they spotted me. He licked my wounds when no one else would help me and stayed with me for a few days. He defied his pack by saying that if they did not help me then they would have to find another leader for the pack. That was when they finally helped me. I showed them which herbs to bring me, so I could heal myself, and they brought them." Eleece stopped, thinking about how to phrase everything else.  
Vanyel took advantage of her pause and caught Savils eye. : Animal Mindspeech perhaps?:  
: I can't think of anything else that would explain.: Savil barely nodded, but he caught the motion.  
" What happened after that, after they saved you?" Savil spoke softly, not wanting to upset her now.  
" Brightfang brought me into the pack, and Brightfang's word is law in the pack, no one questions the alpha male unless fighting him for the leader position. Few wolves have tried that, and for good reason too." She smiled at a distant memory. " Then I lived with them since now. I would still be with them if it weren't for the monster-wolf."  
She shuddered and Vanyel saw things coming together. " The monster- wolf is the one that attacked you then? Not Brightfang."  
Eleece nodded and frowned. " Never have I seen a wolf so large. Almost as big as those mountain cats that scream at night. And he thinks different than the pack. The packs thoughts are all jumbled like a tangled rope, but his, his are like humans. Ordered and shelved neatly. He is not a natural wolf." She wrung her hands, now having gained enought control over her balance to not need any support.  
" You saw inside his mind? Do you know why he attacked you then?" Savil spoke, concern lining her forehead.  
" He wanted something from me, like I had wronged him and he was coming for revenge. I tried not to stay in his mind, it was all wrong. Wolf minds are coppery and golden, but his was blue and streaked with red and black, like he was infected with something." She looked at them from under the curtain of her soft grey hair. " You don't know me well, but the one thing you should know is that not many things scare me enough for me to shiver and shake when I think about them. This wolf, no, this beast, he truly has my fear." 


	3. 3

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 3  
  
Savil and Vanyel left Eleece to herself for a few hours, trying to sort out what they had heard from the girl. After they had heard about the wolf that was not right, They both assumed what any other sane person would: that there was a rabid wolf near the Collegium, and not just near the Collegium, but close enough to the stables and weapons training salle that anyone who went around there was in danger.  
Vanyel was sort of starting to see why it had been so important, and not just because of the girl. In some roundabout way, the girl was just the instrument to let them know that there was danger. You could even say that she had nearly sacrificed herself so that others hadn't gotten hurt along. For that, he supposed, he could trust her a little more.  
" What I want to know is how the wolf got infected in the first place." Savil growled. " You know the curcuit I just came back from? Well, that was to go around checking livestock and any other animals to make sure than there were no signs of rabidness."  
" What if an animal that you had checked became rabid after you left and infected the wolf?" Vanyel offered.  
Savil shook her head. " That Healer that came along, she did something to the animals to keep them from contracting any diseases that could be passed on to other animals. No, it was something else entirely."  
Vanyel handed her a goblet of wine and took one himself. He felt that they both needed it, and had for a long while.  
: Van, love?: Yfandes soft voice broke through his thoughts.  
He sensed a wearyness to her that she had not had for a long time, and he supposed that it was either the heat or the effort from bearing her foal. She deserved rest, but he didn't understand why she was not taking it.  
: What's wrong, if anything?: He asked calmly, letting waves of love and comfort resound across their link.  
: Eleece came looking for you, but she found me. The girl has no shielding whatsoever and she practically pushed information at me before her sleep potion kicked in.: Vanyel's interest picked up and he listened to what Yfandes had to say.  
When at last he stopped conversing with her to let her take her rest, his eyebrows felt as if they would never come down from his hairline and his mouth was set in a grim line. Savil had taken notice and waited until Vanyel spoke.  
" It seems," Vanyel said slowly. " That we have not been asking the right questions of our little foundling."  
" Oh?" Savil asked archly over the rim of her cup.  
" Eleece not only has a powerful Animal Mindspeech Gift, stronger than any I have ever seen or read about, but she can Heal them also!"  
" So? Anyone with the Healing Gift can heal animals." Savil pointed out.  
" It's not like that! She can only heal animals, even if they've been nearly ripped apart by something. Yfandes got a memory of her bringing a dead wolf pup back to life after it had been borne still." Vanyel's hands nearly shook as he poured himself another cup of wine. " Have you ever heard of something like this occuring?"  
" Maybe in the Tayledras records, but not anywhere around here. Maybe that's where she ran away from, one of the nearer Vales." Savil mused, and grabbed a peice of paper to write a short explanation of what had happened and asking if anyone was missing a girl.  
She sent it off with a page to the pigeionry to have it sent to Starwind and Moondance. They would know.  
" We also have to consider things that would be totally impossible." Vanyel said while Savil returned from sending the letter off.  
" Like what?"  
" Like if she is from around the Vale area, no I should phrase it differently. It would be better to say if she is not what she seems, as many things are out in Tayledras territory." Vanyel nodded, satisfied with the wording.  
" You mean what if she's a Changewolf?" Savil sat straight up. " But that's near impossible! As far as I know, they can't Heal other animals, and we would have sensed something from her by now."  
" Right, but what if she does not know that she is one? She's like a wild child, only the opposite. Where she was meant to live in the wild, she was raised in civilization." Vanyel didn't know where the idea had come from, but like he had said, think about the impossible.  
" That's complete bullshit and you know it. Changewolves cannot Heal like she does, they cannot be capable of the things she does, cannot contain the fear that she does!" Savil shook her head and stood up, walking out of his room while muttering to herself about her crazy relatives.  
Vanyel chuckled to himself and downed some more wine, then looked at how much less wine there was in the bottle. He was crazy to have thought of it, his better side agreed with Savil, but there was that nagging side that still held firm in his crazy ideas. He drank some more to drown that voice out. But as much as he drank, he still could not block out the feeling of her changeing her arm underneath his hands, nor the glow of her golden eyes. She was not what she appeared to be, and he would find out just what she was.  
  
A few days later the reply from the k'Treva Vale arrived, and Savil had to read it a few times before she could believe it. " They say that they want to come here and study her!" Savil nearly shrieked at Vanyel. " The damned crazy bird brained fools want to come here and study Eleece! Like she's some kind of new animal or something!"  
Savil threw the letter down on the table and sat huffily in her chair. " Well, they better do something constructive to make up for their horrible wording." But she grinned all the same, knowing that something like this would have drawn her freinds out of their eternal hothouse.  
  
Meanwhile, there had been another attack in the woods. The boy had been put in Eleece's room, since there was nowhere else to put him except in the burn unit, and thanks to a odd fascination with leaving candles burning while they were sleeping, there were quite a few trainees there. Eleece was awake when they brought him in, as the Healers had judged that she no longer needed to sleep when they worked on her.  
As soon as Vanyel and Savil heard about it, they rushed to the room to see how bad it had been, also to question Terick if he was consious, which he was. The Helaers gave him some pain numbing drugs as they stitched some cuts up, but it was mostly brusing and one long scratch across his face, starting underneath the jaw on the left side of his face and crossing diagonally up to his right eyebrow. It was deep, and he had lost the eye, but he had not been infected with whatever the wolf had.  
Eleece took one look at him and burst into tears. Terick did not burst so much as let the tears out in a thin trickle and sniffle from time to time until the stitching was done and the Healer had gone, knowing that the two Herald-Mages could deal with things from there.  
" It's all my fault!" Eleece keened, hiding her face in her hands. " If I had let him take me, this would not have happened!"  
" What do you mean? He's rabid, anything is prey for him." Vanyel was confused.  
" If he's so rabid then why has he not touched my pack? Why has he not come out of the forest to attack? Why is it only the people that go into the forest get attacked?" Eleece was no longer crying, but her face was ashen and fey.  
Savil nodded to herself, thinking that the girl had brought up questions that she herself had asked as soon as she learned about Terick. " How do you know that your pack has not been-" Savil did not know a kind way to put it, but the girl got the gist.  
" They would have gotten word to me somehow. They know that I run with them in my dreams, they know how to reach me by their speech. If someone had gotten attacked, they would have howled long into the night in mourning. There are too many of them for him to kill all at once." Eleece was so sure about it, and yet there was something in the back of her head that told her differntly. " But it is my fault that he attacks those that venture into the woods. He promised me he would, and now you see he makes good on his words."  
She motioned to Terick, who sat upright, listening to them tensely. Vanyel remembered that he had wanted to ask the boy some things.  
" Terick, I know that you are here for Herald training. What are your Gifts?" He looked at the boy calmly, recognizing him as the one that had delivered a fair many letters for him and Savil both. He was a good boy, and would make a promising Herald.  
" Mindspeech, small amount of Fetching. Mostly Mindspeech." He shrugged.  
" Did you hear anything from the wolf when he attacked you?" Vanyel exerted a little of his Empathy, because he knew that Terick was also a very stubborn boy. " Did he say anything to you?"  
Terick looked to Eleece and she nodded, so he went to answer. " He did. At first it seemed that he wanted to kill me, then he sniffed at me and said something." Terick scrunched up his face, as much as he could with the new stitches in. " He said that I wasn't her. I wasn't what he desired. Then he seemed to maul me merely for pure spite."  
Eleece sagged under the weight of guilt. Now she knew that she was the monsters one and only target, that it was her flesh that he hungered for.  
" I would have died had it not been for the other wolves." Terick said, snapping Eleece out of her stupor.  
" What? There were other wolves?" She asked in a breathy hiss, excitement and happiness in her eyes.  
" Yeah, normal sized ones too. That monster, he isn't a normal wolf, not even a half breed either. But after he knocked me across the face there was this wave of wolves, and they all set on him, tearing and ripping and the like. He must not have expected it, because they got him pretty good before he finally gave up and ran off. I still might have died, but this one wolf, a huge black one; he dragged me to the edge and left me there. That was when some of the other Trainees found me."  
Eleece did something odd. She rolled back onto her bed and lay on her back, drawing her limbs in on herself and keening a little howl that sounded almost happy. Then she sat up and smiled widely. " Brightfang knows! He knows that I am alive and that I am safe! I just hope he knows that I will come back to him, someday." She seemed to be speaking to herself, and then she turned to Terick. " I wish I could heal you, but I only work for animals."  
Terick flushed a little and smiled shyly. " Aw, tis nothing. Either way I wouldn't get my eye back and I'll just end up with this great beauty."  
Eleece giggled a little and found she was enjoying this human's company very much. She supposed that she had the beast to thank, and that would be the only thing she ever thanked him for.  
Savil and Vanyel exchanged glances and made similar faces. : I don't know what to think. If they did pair, would that be a good or bad thing?: Vanyel asked his aunt, who merely shrugged and responded that they should leave the two alone.  
Vanyel agreed. Maybe they could heal each other better than any potion or salve. He sure hoped they would. 


	4. 4

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 4  
  
The wolfen one sat in the forest, licking his wounds. Twice he had sought flesh for the taking, but the second time he had not known that the human was not the one he wanted. He'd assumed that it was the girl coming back to her pack, because he knew she had been healed in that building that roiled with so many other humans. He could not get near the building itself, it was protected by something that would not let him pass. If it wasn't, he would have been done with his duty and been away.  
He would have gotten it done if those damned wolves had not interfered the first time! He growled and his eyes burned at the thought of the pack. They were becoming a nuisance, and as such could not be tolerated. If they got in his way again, he would not listen to his master, and he would kill them all, then go for the girl.  
The beast yawned and settled down in the bear cave that he had stolen, because after all, even monsters need to sleep.  
  
It had been a week since the ban on the forest had been put into effect, and there had been no more attacks, something that Eleece was glad for. She knew that the beast was still out there, but had learned from Vanyel that he had been seen prowling the edges when there was no one to see him but the Companions, and he always dashed into the forest when any hint of alarm was sent up. The Collegium's own sheilds were keeping him out. Vanyel and Savil had made the two of the children to promise that they would not go outside, because now he was becoming desperate enough to come out of the forest.  
Terick and Eleece bonded fast over their expeirinces with the wolf, then with other things. Terick loved animals of any kind, and was often repremanded for trying to raise babies in his room. Eventually he had petitioned to raise a few select ones, and he got a good response. According to him, he had a nest of baby starlings, a litter of housecats, and a few small lizards.  
Terick lowered his voice and whispered to her. " I have a wolf pup also, but that wasn't one of the animals I asked for, and they wouldn't have said yes anyway. I have to hide him."  
Eleece scooted forwards on her bed, leaning over until thier faces were near touching. " You have to show me." She said, and Terick didn't quite understand the urgency in her voice or the sad look in her eyes.  
During his short stay with her, he had become something akin to infatuated with her. It didn't help that he could look at her when she was sleeping, a persons most vulnerable moment. But Eleece didn't seem so vulnerable at any time, even when she slept. It was as if she glowed in the moonlight, turning into a thing of steel and emeralds. The things that he had told her, at least some of them, were things that no one else knew, not even Manie, the boy that he had known since his fifth summer of life. He was afraid to admit it, but he thought he was in love with her.  
Eleece had something of the same dilemma there also. She liked him well enough, and she had been thinking about him in the way that normal human girls think about boys. He was handsome, with night black hair that curled slightly after he had been sleeping on it. His eyes were a clear dark blue, wide and inviting. The wound across his face did nothing to steal his beauty, and among the wolves it would have been seen as a mark of battle, something that was always respected.  
" When do you want to see him?" His calm voice filtered through to her and she nearly gasped.  
In her haste to find out about the pup, she had put him dangerously close to her. She could smell the sleepiness in him still, the sweet musk that all males seemed to have, but his was richer, like the soft loam under her feet when she ran free with the pack, throwing back her head and howling. She saw the glow of the candle on his skin, could feel the warmth rising and disspating from him. Something in him called to her, and she let her breath out in a soft rush against his cheek.  
She slowly moved away from him and stared at him, wide eyed and in a slightly defensive crouch. Terick looked at her like he had just been struck, and his hand reached up to touch where her breath had touched him. " What did you just do to me?" He asked softly, his face relaxing into a small smile.  
" I think, in a strange way, that I just kissed you." She thought to herself. Yes, it was something she did, when she did not want to get a mouth full of fur, but still tell the wolves that she loved them.  
Terick barked a short laugh and rose from his bed. " Well, I'm not complaining."  
Eleece smiled up at him and stood also, even though she only came up to his shoulder. She did know that he was tall, taller than Vanyel, but she also knew the she was short and a little younger than Terick. She reached up and touched the scar that ran across his face. Terick grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. " Please don't do that." He whispered into her hair. " I can't stand it."  
Eleece drew back and clasped his face in her hands gently. " Among a pack, that would mark you as one of the bravest wolves. Wounds are not things of guilt, but of bravery and valor." She pulled his face down and laid a series of kisses up the scar, starting where it did. " And I think that you see that I do not mind."  
Terick broke away from her, a sad smile on his face. He held her hands in his own, dwarfing them almost. " Tell me something."  
" Yes?"  
" That I am not just some peice of meat to you, to be played with when you feel like it. That I do mean something to you, despite the short amount of time we've had together." His face was serious and there was no teasing in his voice.  
Eleece tried to meet his eyes but couldn't. She had to search deep inside herself. She felt something for him, but she didn't know just what it was yet. Many wolves were very affectionate with each other, coming near to mating behaviour, yet purely friends. She couldn't remember if humans were like that, but the way Terick was acting, she didn't think they were. She didn't know what to do....  
Yes, she did.  
" Terick, this is what I feel for you." She took his hand and touched it to her face, rubbing like she was trying to scent him. She blew her breath across his palm and heard the pack in the movement, thier howling chrous spiraling up and out of her, into her actions.  
She stood up against him and rubbed her face into his shoulder, bringing his arms to rest around her waist. She nipped at his chin like she was letting him be the leader, and when she caught the scarred side in her mouth, he jumped and gasped. He tried to let go of her, but she had clasped him to her, trying to make him hear the sounds of the forest in her. She wanted to run in that moment, run and never look back, but she knew she couldn't. Not here, not now.  
He stopped trying to fight her, now just stood still and silent. She thought she had scared him and backed away, but when she saw his face, it was shining with tears and a smile appeared. He reached out his hands to her, but she was sad that she had made him cry.  
" I don't know what you did Eleece, but that was the most amazing thing in the world." He sat on his bed as if his legs wouldn't support him anymore. " It was like I was running with wolves, like I was one of them. There was a feeling of such intense, deep love, like iron that could not be bent or shattered; no matter how hard anyone tried. It was-oh."  
Eleece didn't have the hear to tell him that he was feeling the bond between Brightfang and her, but it was something akin to what she felt for him, and it had been the best example she could have given him.  
" Is that what you were trying to tell me?" Terick asked, and Eleece could feel the tears start in her eyes as she nodded.  
" I don't know if I could ever feel something that fierce, that wholesome!" He tipped his head back as if in ecstasy, then looked solemnly in her dark green eyes. " But I will try my hardest."  
The dam broke in Eleece's heart and the tears slipped out of her eyes as his arms came around her in a tender embrace and he kissed her for real, just the touch of lips and bodies.  
  
Vanyel whirled around to meet the group that were waiting to see Eleece. He shook his head and he tried to stammer something while closing the door and making a shooing motion with his hands. " They, ah, they aren't ready for company." He managed to get out while shaking his head to clear it.  
" Are they doing what I think?" Moondance asked archly. " Because only something such as that could make you flustered like this."  
" No, they still have their clothes on. It's not them that's doing it, it's their spirits." Vanyel explained. " I think we just unknowingly brought a lifebond together."  
Savil's jaw dropped and the mages eyes sparkled with humor as he clapped Savil on the shoulder. " I have known you to be many things, my dear Wingsister, but a matchmaker was never among them!" Starwind smiled graciously. " Now let us break up this tension and introduce ourselves, hm?"  
  
Vanyel opened the door, trying not to smile when Eleece and Terick leapt away from each other with an ungainly squawk as he let everyone in. He let something else in also.  
Moondance tripped on the something, letting out a most un-Tayledras- like bellow as he fell to the ground and moored there, trying to figure out what just happened. Everyone stared at him, Vanyel, Savil, and his lover struck at the idea that he could be put into such a position. Eleece felt a tug at her tunic and looked down, as did Terick.  
" Ash!" Terick roared, slamming the door shut and trying to catch the pup.  
" Skysong!" Eleece scooped the pup up into her arms and settled him like a baby, stomach up and paws out, then started sniffing him avidly. " I thought you were hurt! You scared the pack so!"  
: I sorry I ran. Big man saved me from a trap and brought me here. I was scared, and then I felt you, just a few sniffs ago. I ran to you and here I am!: The small wolf-pup sat up in her arms and sneezed at Moondance. : He smells like deer. I'm hungry. Can I eat him?:  
Eleece managed to keep a straight face. " No, you cannot eat him. Humans are not food silly, even if they do smell like deers."  
Now Vanyel knew how non-Heralds felt when Heralds spoke to their Companions aloud. He wished he could hear the pups side of the conversation, especially after Eleece's reprimand.  
" Deer indeed. It's the dyheli that he's smelling on me." Moondance said as he got up, eyeing the pup strangely.  
" How do you know Ash?" Terick asked, petting the pup on the head, but snatching his hand away when he turned is head around and nipped at Terick's fingers.  
" His name is Skysong, Sky for short." She said sternly. " But he went missing a day before the beast showed up. We thought that the beast had gotten him."  
: Hungry.: Sky whined, pawing at Eleece's stomach softly. : Feed me.:  
Eleece held him out, hands under his arms. " For Great Dark, will someone please get him some milk!?"  
Savil laughed as she was picked for candidate to get the little wolf some food. " Only if I get to feed him!"  
Eleece had a pained look on her face. " Might we move somewhere more comfortable? I tire of being inside, and Sky will want to run around." She pleaded with Vanyel, and he supposed that with Savil and himself, and the two Hawkbrother mages, they would do alright if they stayed near the Collegium. He nodded and led the way out to the gardens. 


	5. 5

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 5  
  
They made a motly bunch, sitting in the gardens under a tree that shaded them from the summer heat. Vanyel and Savil in their Whites, then Terick and Eleece in their tunics that marked them as patients in the Healers Hall. Moondance and Starwind looked spectacular, as always. Moondance was in a robe and pants set that echoed his use-name, in light blues and greys and silvers, making him look for all the world a cloud turned human. Starwind was in more of a conservative outfit, if you could call the open chested shirt and tight pants that. His boots would have gone up to his thighs if he had not turned them down at the knee, making him seems like a pirate captain, except he would look most out of place with a pegged leg and a patch across his eye.  
Yfandes had finally regained enough strength to get up and out of the stables, and she sought her Chosen like a comfort blanket. Her filly, Maylea, wobbled slowly behind her. Yfandes laid down behind Vanyel and let him rest on her, while Maylea stood and sniffed his hair. Once satisfied, she went to sniff the others, including Sky. Sky decided that he liked her long mane and tried to see if it was tasty. Maylea lipped at him with enough teeth to startle, and he took offense, swiping at her nose.  
" Skysong!" Eleece gasped, pulling him away from Maylea as Yfandes took her daughter's tail in her mouth and yanked on it until the filly bent her legs and sat by Vanyel as well.  
Vanyel couldn't help but smother giggles as he heard Yfandes telling Maylea off, and then had to smother another fit whelie he watched Sky wilt under Eleece's mental admonitions. When the children were done with their scolding, and Eleece and Yfandes had exchanged tired glances and similar sighs of contempt, the questioning began.  
Moondance wanted to hear both Eleece's and Terick's versions of their attacks, and got them. Starwind's face seemed to shut down when they mentioned that the wolf-beast had spoken, and halfway through Terick's explanation he went quiet. Eleece took his hand and rubbed it against her cheek and that seemed to revive him, though no one knew why. He went on, and seemed to be stronger than he had been.  
Moondance sat back as he thought of questions, while Starwind was full of them. " What did he look like?"  
It wasn't a new question, but she answered it anyway, cradling Sky in her lap as he dozed from the milk. " He was big, like those-"  
" I meant what did his mind look like?"  
Eleece blushed. " Oh." She looked away for a few moments as she thought. " Wolves, any wild animal, they've got a color of magic in them. The normal ones, like wolves and cats and the others, their magic is copper- gold. The other ones, like wyrsa and Colddrakes and basilisks, they've got silver in place of the copper. But this wolf, he was all blue, but with red and black streaks and strings running through him, like an infection." She shivered and Sky whined. " Yes, I know you are bright and shiny, now shush."  
Vanyel wondered where she had been that would let her see wyrsa and Coldrakes and the like, but he did not ask, at least not yet.  
" When you were in his mind, did you get any feelings from him?" Starwind asked, and Eleece and Terick both nodded.  
" Anger and hate." Eleece said.  
" He felt like he was dissapointed that it was me. Kept saying that I wasn't her. That it was supposed to be her." Terick shook himself. " He is not sane. An animal with a human mind. He's not right."  
When the same questions came from the two mages, and they had been asked over and over, they settled to other topics, since Eleece was getting tense and Terick was being affected by it. Moondance finally let Sky tumble over his lap and bat at his hair crystals. " I thought that he would be older. Isn't this the season when wolves would be getting ready to mate?"  
Eleece was glad that she had someone to talk wolves with, and she nodded. " Sky and his litter were somewhat of an accident, though they are loved much." She smilied lovingly at the pup and he yipped back, something that he said to her making her blush.  
" What did he say?" Vanyel asked.  
" He said he wishes I were his mother." So she had to change some words around, but at least the meaning was there.  
: I am glad to have you as my mother.: Was what he had said, but she could not tell these people that, not yet.  
" It seems that you are his mother anyway, the way you deal with him." Savil mentioned, now having a lap ful of sleepy pup.  
" As the lupa of the pack, I had to take care of nearly all the pups. It is just something that I did. Brightfang did not want me to hunt, so I took care of the litters when the mothers could not." She smiled at the memories.  
" How many litters were there at a time?" Starwind asked.  
" There are about seven females and five males now, but when it comes time for taking a mate the females that have not been taken invite other members from the packs in. Brightfang allows this, since if they father pups he must add them to the pack, and he does not take a mate himself." Her smile was tight now, and as nice as it looked, it did not reach her eyes. " So about seven litters of pups, all ranging from six to four pups."  
  
Starwind gave her an appreciative look and prasied her skill with children. " Ow!" Savil pushed Sky off her lap and sucked at her bleeding finger. " I think he's teething."  
Eleece shook her head as she scooped him up, quieting his snarling and growling, his little baby hackles raised and ready. " Someone shield me. Now!" She whispered, and the intensity of her voice forced Savil and Vanyel to throw temporary ones on her. " Now stay very still and very quiet."  
No one knew what to expect, but they soon found out. The beast came loping into the gardens, sniffing the air and testing the ground with his paw as if he did not trust the grass. " If I don't move, he won't see me." Eleece's voice was barely more than a whisper, and only Vanyel heard her, being close enough.  
  
He moved into the gardens, and suddenly the ground looked like it was water. He put his paw out to touch the grass before he stepped onto it. There were people, and they were looking right at him, he could smell their fear. He could smell her, but he could not see her, and his master had said not to attack unless he could see her. He dismissed it as the wind bringing the scent to his nose as it often did.  
Turning, he loped back into the forest, not wanting to try the barrier on the big building where her scent was coming from. He would try another day.  
  
Eleece fell over a few minutes after the beast left the gardens, using her ears and her nose to make sure that he was gone and would leave her alone. For now. She used the weam muscles in her arms to push herself back up, and by the looks in everyone's eyes, they wanted explanations. She thought that she had the answer to some questions now, and she was ready for them. 


	6. 6

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 6  
  
The beast trembled under the power of his master's voice, bowing down in the forest even though his master was not there. It was better, for if he was, he would have been more damaged than this.  
" You let her get away." His voice was quiet now, and the beast knew that if he did not cower and weep as the master exected, his voice would get louder.  
: You said unless I could see her. She was not there, to my eyes.: He said honestly, and knew that his master would not be angered at him parroting his words back to him, only if he changed the words and used them against him would he be angry.  
" True." That one word held worlds in it and he could almost see his master putting his hand to his chin, only he had never seen his master in the flesh before. " In that case, so you do not fail me again."  
The beast howled in pain as a mage lance came down in his mind, searing paths and tunnels of himself. He lay there twitching in agony as fire raged through his mind and made every movement ache as if he was freezing to death. But as soon as it had come, the pain was gone, and he could stand up and see without the haze of anger or pain clouding his eyes. He blinked a few times and saw that the lights that danced in front of him were little copper specs, the birds and squirrels in the trees.  
" Now that you can see what the girl does, and she does see this amazing show of lights when she chooses to, whether she is hiding from you or not, you will be able to see her. The next time you see her, whether in dreams or reality, you will kill her."  
As slowly as his master had come, he left, withdrawing from the bird that he had chosen to inhabit to speak to his beast. The bird was killed instantly, and the beast leapt upon it with hungry glee. He just wished that his master had chosen to be an elk next time, so he wouldn't have to deal with eating the little featherheads anymore.  
  
" I know why he wants me." Eleece said, her voice strong with emotions held delicately under control.  
" Moondance brought up the subject of the wolves and their mating seasons. Well, I think that the wolf is looking for a mate." She said, making an inward face at the idea.  
" You?" Savil asked, nearly sputtering up her mouthful of water.  
" Well, look at all the evidence! I'm the only female that has not been mated in the pack! I am female! He attacked Terick because he thought he was me!" She ran out of things to say, if only because they were things that she could not tell them, they would not understand. " He's only after me."  
" Only after you?" Savil's face was incredulous. " Let me tell you something, if he were only after you then what you've got on your back would be all over your body!"  
" Could you show me these wounds? I had known that you were wounded, but not where they were." Moondance asked. " If there was some kind of magics on him, I may be able to tell from your wounds."  
Her tunic tied up the back, since the Healers checked on her every once in a while to make sure that they weren't getting infected or anything. " Terick?" She turned her back to them and the boy stood, undoing each of the laces with tender care.  
Her back was a mess of scars, some still pink and healing. Most of the scars were in the middle of her back, but there were a few rows down her shoulders and on her lower back. " He broke a rib, so they had to set it, but it's alright now. I feel them, but they aren't painful anymore." She shrugged and Starwind hissed in anger. " What?"  
" Do that again, but keep it like that." Moondance asked calmly, and Eleece did so. " Bastard!"  
Eleece shoed away from the man and half turned to see his angry face. He pointed a finger at her and it shook, his whole beind shook. " Your scars are not just anything. When you shrug, it becomes evident that there is a picture there. That attack on you was no accident, and I think that the beast is not the only factor in this anymore."  
" What kind of picture?" She asked breathlessly as her mind raced to try and figure out who would be trying to kill her.  
" A wolf, leaping for the attack." Vanyel said, now looking at it.  
The rest of her scars, the old ones, marred the image a little, but it was there. The wolf had not a face, but a head and upper body, with a small scar making the tail down by her left hip. Savil quickly looked at it with her Mage Sight.  
" It's like how you described the wolf's mind. The red and black streaks are there, and more." Savil was amazed to see that the girl brimmed to the point with what she had described as wild magic, copper-gold and shining brighter than flame.  
" Why did you not tell us?" Vanyel asked, sadly tired and dissapointed.  
Eleece knew what they saw. She felt thier magic brush her senses and knew that they saw the wilderness that she held inside her, the magic that enabled her to speak with the wolves and other animals, that gave her the ability that made it possible for her to heal them of any wound. She felt like a bird ready to break through the brush because it had been frightened, but her wolf side made her stay and face her attackers, though her human side told her that she was not being attacked, only found out.  
" You wouldn't understand what it means. What I can do, what I have done." She took a breath and expelled it, calling Sky to her as she sat on her bed. She let the tunic hang open in the back, secured by one tie. " Why I had to run away from my home."  
Savil felt rather maternal, the girl just brang it out of everyone around her. " You can tell us. Unless you killed someone-" The stricked look on the girl's face told her that she had said the wrong thing.  
Sky crawled up into her lap and put his head under her hand, obviously telling her something. Whatever it was, it made tears creep from her eyes and down her cheeks, but she said nothing nor made any noise until Terick moved and knelt in front of her. " It will be easier if you just tell us. Everyone in this room can cast a Truth Spell, some better than others, but still..." He let his sentance trail off and then spoke again. " If you think that I will think any less of you, you're wrong-"  
Eleece pushed him away with amazing strength, gritting her teeth and trying not to howl in frustration. " My family! It was my family that I killed! Are you happy now? Every single person in our village that didn't run away got slaughtered by me!"  
She gripped one hand in the bedsheets while the other slowly stroked Sky, as if the pup gave her some reassurance, or better to say, a grip on her sanity.  
" My father," Her voice was quiet and hushed now and she stared at her feet. " He was not a nice man. Far from it. If he was not taking my mother painfully in their room, he was beating my brothers for petty things. For some reason, he never touched my sisters and I, but this one night."  
She took a breath and visibly steeled herself, sitting up straight but never taking her eyes off her feet. " It was the night of my thirteenth birthday. My mother made a great feast for the whole Hold because we were the richest family on the land, and I would be married off to whatever man that my father deemed favorable."  
" I did something wrong. I don't remember what it was, but it made him angry and he hit me in front of the whole Hold! Something in me snapped and I changed and leapt at him. I tore his throat out and everyone started screaming and I went for them. The ones that were smart and ran were saved, but my family; oh gods, my sisters and brothers, even the baby. My grandmother and the aunts. The second and third wives had not been allowed to sit with us, so they got away. But anyone and everyone that I had loved, I had killed."  
Vanyle thought that it was very unsettling that she was not crying. She was totally indifferent. But it didn't make her any more of a monster than he was. He had acted that way when he was on the Border, but he hadn't known most of the people he had killed, not cared for them in any ways like she had.  
" You changed? Into what?" Terick asked, and Sky started to berserk.  
: You can't show them! They'll kill you! Humans always kill wolves! No! Mama no!: Eleece was the only one who heard his words, but she dispassionately ignored him as she stood up and let her skirt slip to the ground.  
Her body shook slightly as golden fur started to grow out of her skin and her bones snapped and popped as they formed and reformed into the smaller bones of a wolf. She fell to all fours and howled in pain as her muzzle grew and lengthened, her claws ripping out of her fingers and her joints shortening themselves. Little gave one last long scream that Sky echoed as her transformation came to a shuddering finish and she stood there, tall and proud.  
Everyone drew away from her, looks of amazement and horror on thier faces. Little looked at Terick and it saddened her to see that he had taken to cowering in a corner of the bed, arms around his knees and tears streaming down his face. She slowly walked to him and sniffed him, the fear radiating off him in waves that she could smell. She placed her paws on the edge of the bed and licked at his face, whining softly. Terick yelped and stuck out at her and she wheeled away.  
Little heard the sound of a whinny; Terick had called his Companion. She knew that the only way out of the room was the window, and there would be a very mad horse waiting for her. She would be lucky to even hit the ground before she was torn to peices, but she had been lucky before.  
Vanyel saw it before anyone else did. Yfandes wouldn't get there in time for her to ward off Terick's Companion. She would get killed.  
Little turned her dark green eyes to the rest of the group, who were still frozen. She bent and licked Sky across the face, then wheeled and leapt out of the window. Terick was startled out of his stupor and ran to the window. " No! Eleece, no!"  
Little saw the Companion, felt the rage coming off of him like a powerful waterfall smashing into her. She saw the dark figure dart out of the forest and knew that the Companion was not the only thing she had to worry about. The beast had been waiting, and he had seen his chance, and was taking it now.  
  
His legs started running after his mind did, but soon caught up. She had left the confines of her safehold, and she was now ready prey for him.  
He would not fail his master this time. 


	7. 7

Forest Murmurs  
  
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.  
  
Chapter 7  
  
Little slapped the ground the same time the beast got near enough to snarl at her. The drop hadn't been as long as she had expected, and as her head reeled from landing, she was glad. The beast might get her, but she wanted to hurt him before he did.  
: You won't get away this time. I've caught you, just like my master wanted me to. I can have my way with you, and whatever is left over goes to him.: He said smugly into her head, dancing around her lightly. : You should hope and pray that I kill you. My master is not a kind man.:  
Little wondered for a moment whether or not she should feel sorry for him, because she had detected a hint of fear in his voice, but as he swiped at her with a paw, she lost all sorrow for him and leapt. Midair, she made the painful transistion from wolf to hunting cat, giving her a better advantage in size and power. Now she was the same size and fear glinted in his eyes.  
: No! You are a wolf!: He screamed, finally having been pushed over the edge. : WOLF!:  
Little screamed a challenge and he howled in answer, rushing at her. She dodged to the side and landed on her shoulders, and he was upon her like lightning, ripping and tearing at her. She managed to get her paws on his chest and sank them in deep, eliciting a painful scream from him as she raked her claws down his front. He tore away from her, dripping blood from his wounds and breathing heavily. She saw the discolored drool hanging in strings from his mouth.  
: Don't let him bite you.: She heard Sky's small voice and remembered that she had a pup to defend, as well as the rest of her pack. With this newfound rage in her, she attacked.  
She tried to leap onto his back like she had seen the other mountain cats do, but he threw up his head and caught her rear foot in his mouth, biting down. The pain made her snarl and twist herself around backwards to swat at his nose, leaving four bloody gashes in his face.  
: An eye for an eye.: She spat at him, slashing out again with her paw.  
He could no longer form any coherent thoughts, merely growled at her and leapt. This time it was not she who slapped him down, but a glaring white being. It was the Companion that she had seen below the window. Terick's Companion! He was helping her, which meant that Terick might have told him to, she didn't know; but she greatly appreciated the help.  
She pivoted on her good foot and watched the stallion battle the wolf. Unfortunately, when the Companion ducked to avoid a hit, the beast jumped over him and landed heavily in front of Little. A heavy vase from the room upstairs landed next to them and shattered, obviously meant for the beast. it distracted him though, making him look around for the other attacker. She took this advantage to get away from him long enough that she could take a breath and think about what she could do.  
She got longer than she thought she would have, because both of the Heralds and Tayledras mages came running around the corner, Vanyel's hands full of mage lightning and the other three holding what seemed to be very powerful sheilds on him, so powerful that he glowed to the human eye. She sent a silent thanks to the wolf gods and leapt back into the fray, screaming to get the beasts attention. The Companion had moved back into range and in mid leap she changed her direction, landing heavily on his back with her claws in so as not to harm him, then leaping off of him to land on the beast.  
The beast howled as she sank all sets of claws into his back, the front ones ripping up his back while the hind foot held her on as he bucked and scrambled to get her off. He rolled at the same time that Little bit his neck, and when he landed, she deftly snapped his neck.  
: I will not allow you to live!: Someone screamed in her mind, and it was not the beast.  
Her world exploded in a firey haze of pain and she screamed, a long suffering cat scream that blended into a human one as someone forced her change back to a person. Her body stretched out, as if someone had tied her spread-eagle. She felt as if someone was opening her belly with knives, slamming rocks into her head and pouring liquid fire into her veins, all at once. The attack had come so fast that she didn't even have time to draw breath and scream.  
Screams came from the forest, and everyone but her turned to look, seeing the wave of fur and teeth arupt from the forest. Her wolves set upon the beast, who was still moving, his eyes gone white in glowing. She watched them rip peices of him out, even the little year old pups. Brightfang snarled savagely as he went right for the beasts throat and ripped it out, but still the thing moved. She knew that it wouldn't matter if they ripped and tore at him all day, the body was possessed by someone far scarier than the beast could ever hope, and he had her in his clutches. The wolves were only a distraction.  
Little/Eleece could only writhe on the ground while her body was savaged by magical energies from whomever was possesing the beasts body, but the wolves were proving to be a problem, and whoever it was, he had to lessen his hold on her to concentrate on the wolves. She felt herself being able to breathe again and with breath her anger returned, but still she could not move from the ground. She watched in sadness as Brightfang and a few other wolves, including Snowheart, flew threw the air as if swatted by a giant invisible hand. She checked with her magic and saw that the bright coppor glow had not faded in any of them, but then saw another dash out and attatch itself to the beast.  
: Sky! NO!: She screamed with her mind, and watched him be swatted also, flying into the wall with a sickening thud of small bones breaking. He fell to the ground and did not move, a small puddle of blood collecting under his small body.  
" NO!" Little/Eleece screamed, finding her anger burning away the hold on her.  
She rose to her feet, her foot having been healed in the transistion from cat to human, her hands balled into fists as she stalked towards the beast. " You can hurt me, you can batt my mate arond like a toy, but you cannot," She grabbed the beast by the face and yelled into it. " Kill my children!"  
Little/Eleece pushed all of her wild magic into him like a bolt of lightning, feeling it blast through her and into him, his eyes glowing a bright clear blue before he burst into a cloud of ash and she fell to the ground, unconsious with a trickle of blood seeping from her nose.  
  
Vanyel felt like he was in a trance while he watched Eleece rise from horrible pain and blast the beast away like he was nothing more than a feather. He had seen an attack like that once, but it had been a Final Strike, and she shouldn't have been able to survive that. At least, her body should have been gone too, but it still lay there, bloddy and battered.  
At last, sound came back and it was calm. The wolves picked themselves up and ringed themselves around Eleece's body, sitting back on their haunches and starting a long, sadness filled chorus, something like he had heard the first night. It stuck Vanyel to the core, and now he understood it. That night they had known that she was going to be lost to them, and again they lost her, after finding out that she had been well and alive. But now...  
" Vanyel, do something, please." Savil chockingly asked, and he turned to her to see her with tears running down her face, held between Moondance and Starwind who both had their eyes closed and their mouths in a grimace of pain.  
He nodded and walked softly over to her body, where the wolves had stopped upon his intrusion. The big black one, with eyes as light blue as his were silver, stepped up and growled.  
" I helped her the first time, remember?" He held out his hand for Brightfang to sniff. " It would be wrong to promise that you will have her back again, but we will do our best."  
  
Little bounded through the forest, leaping this way and that after a blue and gold patterned butterfly. Just when she thought she had it, she leapt for it and missed, landing in a small pond of very cold mountain water. She yipped in surprise and scrambled out of it, shaking herself off and then crouching down at the edge to take a drink. She yelped and scooted away from the edge, pawing at her face and sniffing her hand, wondering why she wasn't covered in fur anymore, why her nose wasn't long and why her mouth wasn't filled with teeth. Well, she had hair, but it all seemed to be growing out of the top of her head and her ears had slid down the sides of her face. She was all soft and fleshy, and now she felt cold and wet.  
IT IS HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE, LITTLE SPIRIT CHILD OF MINE. A voice boomed in her head and she leapt back, searching for who had spoken.  
There was a wolf behind her, dark colored like Brightfang, only his dark fur was that: dark. No shine erupted from his coat as he moved into the sunlight that filtered through the trees, his eyes were two drowning pools of shadows as he stalked towards her. He sat, regally instating shimself in front of her as she crouched low and humble. Little tipped her head up and carefully bit him on the chin, showing him that she accepted his leadership and he brushed his lips across her nose, accepting her submission. She smiled and rolled onto her back, offering him her neck, but he moved quickly and cuffed her softly into the pond again.  
LOOK AT THE HUMAN YOU SEE IN THAT POOL. THAT IS YOU. YOU ARE ELEECE, MATE OF TERICK AND BRIGHTFANG OF THE SHADOW PACK. YOU MUST GO BACK TO THEM, THEY MOURN YOU AND CALL YOU BACK TO THE LAND OF THE LIVING. He said, and she looked at the person in the pool, memories slowly coming back to her.  
Most of them were pleasant, but then the ones full of pain and sadness came, and she gritted her teeth and whined. She remembered seeing her pup get killed, and then remembered speaking. She could speak, right?  
" I have to go back." She said, standing tall like the human she was.  
Great Dark nodded serenely, and Eleece had the feeling that if he were human he would be smiling.  
" Will I still be able to speak to them, my wolves? Will I still be able to become an animal? Would I be able to heal them?" She asked, stepping delicately out of the pool and holding out her hand to Great Dark.  
He snelled it and sniffed it, then butted his head against it. Eleece could not believe how soft he was, like a newborn pup's fur, but with a strong fire coursing through him. This was Great Dark, the wolf god. He aided the wolves in their hunts, had taught the very first ones how to live, and then they had passed it down to their children until the wolves of Eleece's pack. He looked sorrowfully into her eyes.  
ELEECE, LITTLE ONE, I CANNOT UNDO WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. SKYSONG CANNOT LIVE AGAIN. He said, and she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around him and sobbing. He sighed heavily. HE CANNOT LIVE, BUT I WILL LET YOU SEE HIM BEFORE YOU GO HOME TO YOUR HUMAN PACK.  
He stepped away and made a yipping sound, and a ball of grey and silver fur jumped into her arms to replace Great Dark.  
: I missed you Mama.: Skysong said, covering her face in joyful licks and puppie kisses.  
" I missed you too, love." She said, burying her face in his small body while he sniffed her wet hair.  
ELEECE? Great Dark had stepped into the shadows and was slowly fading. YOU HAVE UNTIL DAWN. THEN I WILL SEND YOU HOME.  
She nodded, night black eyes meeting green pools in a stolid agreement. " And my gifts?"  
I CANNOT TAKE AWAY WHAT I HAVE GIVEN IN LOVE. THEY ARE YOURS TO KEEP. JUST- His body faded into the shadows and only his eyes remained, now lit by a inner fire. USE THEM WISELY. GOODBYE, PUP OF MY OWN HEART.  
Great Dark faded completely from their sight and Skysong took off running across the forest, his mother not far behind him, laughing in pure joy and happiness.  
  
Terick stretched slightly, looping his arm around a wolfen shoulder as he tossed in his sleep. The wolves accepted him as readily as they had Eleece, which meant Brightfang had to talk them into it. He'd explained to them that while Brightfang was her mate, the human Terick was her human mate; her soulwatcher, the wolven equivalent of a lifebond. They all slept in a pile around Eleece's bed, a cot that had been lowered onto the floor so they could be near her and touch her.  
The first of the suns rays touched Brightfang's eyes and he sat up, slowly shaking the sleep from his eyes. When he felt he was awake enough, he walked around his pack and settled himself at Little's side. He knew that the humans called her Eleece, but she would always be Little to him, and to the rest of the pack. He licked her cheek as he had every morning for the past seven days, hoping that she would wake up and greet them all again. She breathed, which was a good thing, but her eyes did not yet open and she had not moved at all.  
" Brightfang?" Her voice was little more than a whisper, but he heard it, as did Terick and the rest of the pack.  
Everyone was up on their feet and surrounding the nest. Eleece's eyes opened enough to see her pack and her lifebond there, everyone that she loved. She blinked and tried to lift her hand to touch them, but she was still weak from her journey back from the Forest of Dreams. Terick took one hand and Brightfang wormed himself under the other arm. Eleece looked from one man to the other, then to her pack. She felt their love like a soft blanket, enfolding, surrounding, warm and sure.  
" I think," She drew a trembling breath. " That I have been gone far, far too long."  
Terick nodded, tears in his eye. Snowheart leapt away from the group and scratched at the door, yipping and yelping like she was caught in a trap until someone came and opened the door.  
  
Vayel saw the boy and the pack surrounding Eleece's bed, and the soft whisper of a voice. She was awake! She was alive! He yelled down the hall and Savil and the others came running.  
  
Eleece grasped Terick's hand and hugged Brightfang closer to her, laying kisses on both of their faces. " I went to the Forest, and Skysong was there. But now I am back." A fire blazed in her eyes, the fire of life not yet lived. " And I intend on staying." 


End file.
